			Foreign Correspondent

		      Inside Track On World News
	    By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
		 Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>

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TERROR FEEDS ON TERROR
by Eric Margolis

NEW YORK - The four recent terror bombings in Israel
horrifyingly illustrate the sinister symbiosis that has
developed between Arab and Israeli extremists.  Ostensibly
the bitterest of enemies, they have come to rely - and even
depend - on each other for their political momentum.

Two weeks ago, peace between Israelis and Palestinians
seemed irresistible.  The assassination of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish fanatic had produced massive
sympathy for the pro-peace forces.  Israel's right wing
Likud Party, which had fostered an atmosphere of hatred and
fear, plummeted in the polls.

Seizing this moment, Shimon Peres, the new Prime Minister
and real architect of the Oslo peace process, called a
general election at the end of May.  His pro-peace Labour
Party appeared headed for a major electoral victory.  At the
same time, PLO chief Yasser Arafat received overwhelming
support from Palestinians, in their first-ever vote, to
continue the peace process.

But behind the scenes, wreckers were at work.  Hamas,
Islamic Jihad and a number of other tiny splinter
Palestinian extremist groups that opposed the peace, had
maintained an unofficial, grudging truce with Israel since
last August.  Hamas was even edging towards entering the
peaceful political process.  

But in October, the leader of one such group, Islamic Holy
War, Fathi Shiqaqi, was assassinated in Malta, almost
certainly by agents of Israel's Mossad.  In January, the
most notorious and popular of Palestinian bombers, Yayha
Ayyash, was killed by means of an exploding telephone, a
Mossad signature assassination method.

These two political assassinations ignited the latest round
of hideous suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. 
Though Hamas has been blamed for all the attacks, Islamic
Holy War is likely behind one or two of them.

The bombings have shattered the peace process, at least for
now, and inflicted terrible political damage on Shimon Peres
and his Labour Party, as well as on Yasser Arafat and the
PLO.  Israel's opposition Likud Party suddenly soared in the
polls and now appears poised to win the May elections. 
Likud says it will renounce peace agreements with the PLO
and reoccupy all the West Bank and Gaza, returning
Palestinians to draconian marshal law.

Likud supporters hold key positions in Israel's powerful
security/intelligence establishment.  This column - and a
growing number of Israeli political commentators - suspects
that the killings of the two Palestinian extremists may have
been designed to provoke renewed violence aimed at
scuppering the peace process and wrecking Peres' electoral
chances.  

Palestinian extremists, who bitterly oppose any peace with
Israel, were ecstatic.  Angry Israeli demands that Arafat
control the extremists - something he cannot do without
provoking civil war - left him looking like an Israeli
stooge.  Reprisals and collective punishment of Palestinians
by the Israeli Army may have given some small measure of
relief to furious Israelis, but they only further embittered
Arabs, 99% of whom had nothing to do with the bombings.

Perhaps worst of all, the closure of Israel's borders to
Palestinian workers only makes the situation even more
explosive.  The sole source of income for most Palestinians
is menial work in Israel.  As their economic plight worsens,
desperation will foster more extremism, more terror.

Israeli public opinion understandably demands punishment and
revenge.  But there are no easily discernable targets. 
Palestinians already live surrounded by Israeli security
forces and Israeli Shin Bet agents.  Three thousand
Palestinians are still in Israeli prisons.  What more can
Israel's government do, short of intolerable, Serbian-style
ethnic cleansing of the entire West Bank and Gaza, as some
Likud extremists propose?

There are no easy answers, no quick fixes.  Israelis have to
grit their teeth, endure the unendurable and press ahead
towards peace.  As do Palestinians.  The extremists on both
sides offer no realistic alternative solutions - only a
repeat of 50 years of wars and mayhem.  Back is even worse
than forward.

copyright E.Margolis, March 1996
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